{"title":"Charles Eugène Bedaux (1886–1944): ‘cost killer’ or Utopian Socialist?","authors":"Yves Levant, M. Nikitin","doi":"10.1080/09585200902969278","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09585200902969278","url":null,"abstract":"Charles Eugène Bedaux is best known by social scientists for his labour organisation method. This method was a great success with companies during the interwar years, thus enabling its author to set up a multinational business consultancy. The Bedaux method was, however, violently contested by employees and their unions, who organised many strikes to protest against it. Some of those who knew Bedaux, however, claimed that his method was in reality merely one part of a larger system, a simple component working towards a broader and more generous vision of society (known in French as équivalisme). His project was inspired by the Utopian Socialists of the last century, intended to provide a solution to the widespread disorder experienced by industrial societies during the interwar period. This paper explores the credibility of this project from two perspectives: a critical examination of his biographies and investigations conducted in the places where experiments in ‘equivalism’ were supposedly undertaken.","PeriodicalId":399197,"journal":{"name":"Accounting, Business & Financial History","volume":"105 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124067436","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Accounting for triangular trade","authors":"C. McWatters, Yannick Lemarchand","doi":"10.1080/09585200902969286","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09585200902969286","url":null,"abstract":"This study complements our investigations into the use of accounting manuals as representations of commercial activities. Our previous work focused on the Guide du Commerce of Gaignat de l'Aulnais and the slave trade in eighteenth-century France. We broaden our scope with cross-sectional archival evidence to examine the extent to which the methods and operations in these sources point to a collective knowledge shared amongst traders and those engaged to conduct the slave trade on their behalf. Of particular interest is the prevalence of standardised methods, documents and terms of trade, all of which point, in a similar way to that of the Guide du Commerce, to the slave trade's technical contributions to capitalism (Pétré-Grenouilleau 2004, 352). The archival evidence illustrates the rationalisation and institutionalisation of an economic system, albeit a particular outlier, and its progressive sophistication in terms of operating processes, creating thereby the illusion of a rational business model.","PeriodicalId":399197,"journal":{"name":"Accounting, Business & Financial History","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122668402","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"‘Lady Accounting’, an analogy using blood circulation to popularise an accounting view of the health of the firm","authors":"M. Catalo, Nicole Azema-Girlando","doi":"10.1080/09585200902969237","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09585200902969237","url":null,"abstract":"This paper examines the attempt by Deuwez in 1933 to explain accounting concepts and ideas to non specialists through the analogy of the process of blood circulation within human beings. It comprises two main sections. The first section comprises two reviews: first, of accounting ideas of the period 1900–33 and developments therein; and, second, an examination of contemporary knowledge of blood circulation and the operation of key human organs in relation thereto. In the second part of the manuscript, the analogy is examined in more depth, with some limited attempt made to consider whether or not the blood circulation system is an apposite analogy.","PeriodicalId":399197,"journal":{"name":"Accounting, Business & Financial History","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114247111","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Accounting and the words to tell it: an historical perspective","authors":"Pierre Labardin, M. Nikitin","doi":"10.1080/09585200902969260","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09585200902969260","url":null,"abstract":"In the French language, the word comptabilité (accounting) first appeared in the middle of the eighteenth century. It was used in the Royal finances and its first meaning was that of accountability. Until the middle of the nineteenth century, or thereabouts, the uses of the word evolved gradually but in a somewhat confused manner. Once its meaning had become stabilised, the growing use of the word by an increasing population and the development of accounting activities created a need for adjectives to be added. Commercial, industrial and agricultural accounting, general and auxiliary accounting appeared, as well as the use of comptabilité to designate the accounting department. In this paper, we examine the evolution of words in the context of the development of accounting, seeking some help from amongst linguists.","PeriodicalId":399197,"journal":{"name":"Accounting, Business & Financial History","volume":"47 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124701333","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The history of the french tableau de bord (1885–1975): evidence from the archives","authors":"A. Pezet","doi":"10.1080/09585200902969245","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09585200902969245","url":null,"abstract":"The history of the tableau de bord in France has never really been written. This paper sets out to draw up a history using the archives of three large industrial companies – Lafarge, Pechiney and Saint-Gobain – as source material. This paper seeks to revisit the myth of the French tableau de bord as presented in a great many comparative management studies (typically, Tableau de bord vs. Balanced ScoreCard). This myth rests on more or less implicit assumptions regarding, for instance, the central role played by engineers in the emergence of tableaux de bord, the single and unified way in which this instrument is used in companies from top to bottom and, of course, its French specificity.","PeriodicalId":399197,"journal":{"name":"Accounting, Business & Financial History","volume":"79 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131668120","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Reform or renaissance? France's 1966 Companies Act and the problem of the ‘professionalisation’ of the auditing profession in France","authors":"Carlos Ramirez","doi":"10.1080/09585200902969252","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09585200902969252","url":null,"abstract":"This paper revisits an episode in the history of the auditing profession in France: the period that saw the ‘professionalisation’ of auditing in the late 1960s, almost 100 years after enactment of the law that had officially created the activity. Despite the existence of practitioners with a reputation for competency and despite the more stringent conditions imposed on the recruitment of these practitioners during the 1930s, certification of accounts had remained a ‘function’ rather than a profession. The reform of France's commercial code in 1966 thus gave auditors a second chance, making them a key component in an ambitious plan to modernise French financial markets. The paper considers this reform from the angle of the problem facing the reformers, that of ‘professionalising the profession’ of auditor. Two aspects of the problems are discussed. The first concerns the need to take into consideration the existence of another profession, the profession of the French chartered accountant (expert-comptable), which in the opinion of its leaders had a legitimate claim to a monopoly on auditing. The second concerns the fate reserved for pre-reform audit practitioners (comissaires de sociétés), not all of whom would be admitted as members of the new auditing profession.","PeriodicalId":399197,"journal":{"name":"Accounting, Business & Financial History","volume":"102 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128580399","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Margit F. Schoenfeld and Hanns Martin W. Schoenfeld Scholarship in Accounting History","authors":"","doi":"10.1080/09585200902764471","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09585200902764471","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":399197,"journal":{"name":"Accounting, Business & Financial History","volume":"71 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125174989","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Enterprise and philanthropy: the dilemma of Scottish savings banks in the late nineteenth century","authors":"J. C. Maixé-Altés","doi":"10.1080/09585200802667154","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09585200802667154","url":null,"abstract":"This paper deals with the changes brought about in the organisation and internal management of resources and investments of the main Scottish savings banks, within the context of the British mutual banking sector at the turn of the century. A study of the archival evidence allows us to analyse the reforms introduced by some savings banks, and the impact of changes in regulations on some of the savings institutions for the working class. In addition, from an internal perspective, an analysis of accounting demonstrates the extent to which the philanthropic nature of savings banks led to the development of entrepreneurial initiatives and therefore greater flexibility in lending decisions.","PeriodicalId":399197,"journal":{"name":"Accounting, Business & Financial History","volume":"80 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126380374","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
M. Adams, Jonas Andersson, L. Andersson, M. Lindmark
{"title":"Commercial banking, insurance and economic growth in Sweden between 1830 and 1998","authors":"M. Adams, Jonas Andersson, L. Andersson, M. Lindmark","doi":"10.1080/09585200802667139","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09585200802667139","url":null,"abstract":"We examine empirically the dynamic historical relation between commercial bank lending, insurance and economic (income) growth in Sweden using time-series data from 1830 to 1998 and performing tests for Granger causality. Because of the non-stationary nature of the time series examined the procedure of Toda and Yamamoto (1995) is used. Our results, which have accounted for possible regime changes due to different exchange rate mechanisms over time, indicate that insurance has Granger-caused economic growth and bank lending. Therefore, we conclude that insurance is an important prerequisite for stimulating economic growth and that this could have important implications for contemporary developing economies","PeriodicalId":399197,"journal":{"name":"Accounting, Business & Financial History","volume":"63 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124073279","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}